Jun 26, 2012

So you want to be an artist?

That’s an easy thing right? Just grab some paints and start painting away, no need to go to school or take classes. Just do it!

Does that sound right to you? If so then may you need to read the rest of this article.

Lets’ take a look at a couple of famous artists, Picasso for instance. Did he just get up one morning and start painting Cubism? No…before that he learned to draw a perfect human figure. Some of his best works were from that period before he started Cubism.

How about Dali, do you know that he was classically trained before he stated painting clocks melting? Our history of artists is besieged with avant garde artists that first learned all the basic rules from a master. Then and then only could they break those rules.

Today I see more and more artists that want that instant gratification of being a fine artist before they learn the time tested rules. This is displayed in a lot of art on the Internet and in magazines that have horrible designs and no concept of composition or color theory.

It is encouraged by some teachers to just have fun and paint, they teach the student to follow along and paint what they paint. There is nothing wrong with this if you just want to have a hobby, but it ends there.

Lots of fine artists started out this way, but the ones who moved on to fine art had to learn the basics to do so. If your ambition is to become a fine artist and get in a gallery then start out right with a good teacher who will teach you the standards of painting that have been used for centuries.

There is no way to skip a rung on the ladder of success, you have to start at the bottom and work your way up. You are going to need to put a lot of time and effort in studying, not just painting what comes into your mind with no understanding of the basics that make a masterpiece!

Being an art academy owner and instructor for over 30 years gave me the opportunity to meet a lot of people who wanted to be artists. It was interesting to see the ones who had the drive and would pick my brain so to speak for all the info they could get. Others just wanted to have fun and paint. Both were great to have in my classes, but the ones that wanted what I had accomplished with many years of study right now, were the most interesting.

They did not want to hear that they needed to learn the basics, not at all they just wanted a quick fix, “just show me how to do it …don’t tell me why I am doing it” was their mantra.

Well that would be like trying to play the piano and the student saying, “I just want to play really well, I don’t want to learn to read music, just show me how to play”.

That does not work does it?

Needless to say thier art reflected that approach.The ones who wanted to know everything have gone on to bigger and better things!

So take it from someone who has had to climb the ladder one rung at a time, if you want to be a successful fine artist then first find a teacher who teaches the basic principles of art and learn all there is to learn.